More About the Author

Philip Gwynne Jones was born in South Wales in 1966, and has since lived in Holland, Germany and Scotland. He first came to Italy in 1994, when he spent some time working for the European Space Agency in Frascati, a job that proved to be less exciting than he had imagined.

He spent twenty years in the IT industry before realising he was congenitally unsuited to it, and now works as a teacher, writer and translator. He lives in Venice with his wife Caroline.

He enjoys cooking, art, classical music and opera; and can occasionally be seen and heard singing bass with Cantori Veneziani and the Ensemble Vocale di Venezia.

If, like me, you are a Venetophile who is frustrated by being obliged, through circumstance, to being able to spend no more than a few weeks (or even days) each year in Venice, you will love this modest-looking account of 2 Brits having the courage & stamina to set up a permanent home in La Serenissima. It is exceedingly well written and as informative as it is funny. It is such good value for money that I hope it succeeds in terms of sales - it really ought to do so. Grazie mille all round.

Everyone has a daydream, and Phillip Jones writes about one harboured by many of us - throwing it all up and moving to Venice. The difference in his case is that he is not a trust fund baby or even a hedge fund retiree, but someone who must make a living and has chosen to live in possibly the most beautiful city in the world, also one of the most expensive. His account of how he and his wife negotiate the intricacies of Venetian life as expats on a modest budget, and in fact earn a living, is fascinating to us who only play at being locals for a week or two a year. Highly recommended.

I have been a follower of this particular blog and am delighted to see it make the transformation into book form. Recommended read for Venice lovers! Philip is witty and well informed, and the book reads very well indeed.

As my daughter lives just outside Venice and is an ex-pat and we have our own holiday apartment about 25km away thie subject matter of this book was close to my heart. Over the past 17 years we have come to know and love Venice with all it's foibles and consider it to be the most magical place on earth. Philip's book shows his love of the magical city too and gave us interesting glimpses from a very British perspective - well done will recommend to friends.

A delightful and and in places a very funny account of a couple who decide to live in Another Place. Yet this is not yet just another run-of-the-mill Expat-abroad stories but an honest story of the toll that deciding to step out of one's comfort zones and try to earn a living in a country not one's own can take. It's a darn good read for anyone interested in Venice, with a lot of local colour and description of this amazing place. For anyone who, like us, has also dared to buy a one-way-only ticket across the channel, it has to be compulsory reading! You will, also like us, find yourselves almost drowning in the waves of empathy as you read of their endless attempts to get That Important Document... Buy, read, and enjoy!